{"id":142757,"date":"2024-06-30T14:40:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-30T21:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=142757"},"modified":"2024-06-30T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T21:40:10","slug":"colonial-professors-undermining-sri-lankas-industrialization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/06\/30\/colonial-professors-undermining-sri-lankas-industrialization\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonial Professors & Undermining Sri Lanka\u2019s Industrialization"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 23-29 June 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ee<\/em><\/strong> gapes at the role played by English and US and home-grown colonial agents in the new university set up in \u2018postcolonial\u2019 Sri Lanka. We look at the Wiltshire Regiment\u2019s Sidney Arnold Pakeman, who was made Professor of Modern History and Economics, at the Ceylon University College from 1921-42<\/strong>. A publisher of \u2018histories\u2019 on Sri Lanka and the world, and appointed a preserver (more like, obliterator) of Sinhala \u2018archives\u2019, he was made president of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Pakeman (who students nicknamed \u2018Fakeman\u2019) was appointed<\/em> a member of the Ceylon House of Representatives by the Queen of England after parliamentary elections in 1947, \u2018to represent important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House\u2019. We also look at the role played by Bryce Ryan (expert on \u2018caste\u2019)  and the US Rockefeller Foundation\u2019s imposition of his \u2018sociology\u2019 on the University system. These colonial \u2018interests\u2019, dressed up in their histories and economics, not just \u2018keep on rocking\u2019, but plague Sri Lanka to this day (see ee Focus<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former Central Bank Governor WD Lakshman<\/strong> has given us a recent history of the teaching of Economics<\/strong> in Sri Lanka (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). As governor, Lakshman dared promise a \u2018development bank\u2019<\/strong> (which in the 1950s earned Philip Gunawardena expulsion from cabinet, & SWRD Bandaranaike, a bullet?), resulting in demands for WDL\u2019s immediate & subsequent removal. WDL is still being sniped at by the rolling thinktanks of those North Atlantic climes, and their \u2018native\u2019 media-missile-slingers. Such historiography however leaves out or downplays the role of such teachers of Economics as SBD de Silva<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This omission is perhaps understandable. As Lakshman\u2019s history shows, the teaching of Economics, let alone other subjects, was very much a colonial project<\/strong>, even after 1948. And SBD was no darling of the media or of colonial economics. A 1950s Daily News<\/em> editorial about SBD (based on a complaint from the Australian government!), once asked why there were \u2018communists\u2019 in the Central Bank? Yet SBD and the body of knowledge he attempted to unravel, matters to Sri Lanka. This omission perhaps also parallels the absence of teaching in Sri Lanka of what a productive economy is about, and the modern-machine-making culture this could engender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018During the advent of the 1st<\/sup> industrial revolution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka<\/strong> was mostly under the rule of European Colonisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1815, Sri Lanka was fully conquered by the English Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, at that time<\/em>, the English industrial policy was to prohibit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

any form of industrialisation <\/strong>in any of their colonies, and to use them<\/p>\n\n\n\n

only as sources of raw material to fuel up industrialisation in England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In colonies they built canals & railroads and used steam engines only<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to transport raw materials from inner parts of colonies to the seaports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They set up government institutions that facilitated the extraction of resources<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and did not set up complete sets of institutions that were necessary for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

industrialisation & promoting economic growth & development within colonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, Sri Lanka missed the 1st<\/sup> industrial revolution.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, HN Thenuwara: Sri Lanka Should Regain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Missed Industrial Revolutions (cited by WA Wijewardena)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to Thenuwara & Wijewardena, however, it is still <\/em>English & EU & US policy to prevent industrialization in our countries<\/strong>. And unlike SBD de Silva, Thenuwara & Wijewardena appear fainthearted to expose the stranglehold over the economy and media by the multinational banks & corporations (MNCs), and their merchants & moneylenders who actively sabotage a productive economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee<\/em><\/strong> also excerpt Sugath Kulatunga\u2019s memoirs on the changes in the public service. He recalls their early dedication to increasing rural industrial & agricultural production (all subsequently sabotaged). And while he doesn\u2019t refer to the sharp reduction in salaries to local government workers after the English took a step back (they did not leave!) in 1948, he mentions how trainees had begun to \u2018calculate the number of permits, licenses & approvals<\/strong> which were opportunities to make money\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This anti-industrialization policy<\/strong> \u2013 involving crippling a modern university<\/strong>, an advanced institution for education which should have been a laboratory for the research & development of reconstruction after over 500 years of destruction \u2013 was one of the strategies in the renewed colonial invasion of Sri Lanka. This was continued under the USA from the 1940s, and included diversion away from a modern industrial education into useless scholarly conceits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The cry for independence \u2013 which arose out of the cry for modern industrialization, which itself arose from the English sabotage of energy security (evident in the saga of DJ Wimalasurendra) \u2013 appears to have found little resonance in our universities, midst the pursuit of almost empty academic accolades bereft of relevance to a country seeking to prevail in this ever more challenging world. Instead, we keep being told how wonderful<\/em> English colonialism was, and the need to preserve the import-export plantation fraud, and the merchants & moneylenders who depend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     So instead, over the next 70 years, the US et al have funded various universities & departments & disciplines \u2013from sociology to geography \u2013 to divert from the need to pursue a productive economy & culture (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 This ee<\/em><\/strong> also reproduces a statement from a group of \u2018visiting scholars\u2019 who call for \u2018renegotiation\u2019 with the US-controlled IMF. They gently call for \u2018a change of orientation<\/strong> in dealings with the IMF and Sri Lanka\u2019s creditors\u2019. That the IMF\u2019s \u2018aim must be to protect the living standards of the people & to promote the growth of the economy.\u2019 They point out, \u2018multilateral & bilateral agencies\u2019 like the World Bank & IMF, while blaming China, refuse to reduce their own loansharking<\/strong> terms. These US agencies also do not admit the costs to Sri Lanka of IMF\u2019s previous 16 misadventures here. While these \u2018scholars\u2019 believe the IMF is open to such reason, others luckily for us see exactly who & what we are dealing with, with their penchant for \u2018stealth\u2019 & \u2018strategic ambiguity\u2019, evident in their manipulation of the media to hide their real intent. For unlike \u2018neocolonialism\u2019 and sexy \u2018post-colonialism\u2019, there\u2019d be few academic posts in the white lands that would really call their game, recolonialism<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The current IMF offer<\/strong> accepted by Sri Lankan political leaders<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is not just a debt trap but a \u2018death trap\u2019<\/strong>, as shown by its historical<\/p>\n\n\n\n

dealings with other developing countries. Its officials are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

expert manipulators<\/strong> \u2013 keeping developing countries poor, expanding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

internal markets to benefit the West, allowing product dumping,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

reducing the growth rate (GDP) partly via increasing exorbitant taxes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& tightening regulations, and even forcing (unconstitutional) changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in recipient countries\u2019 laws to benefit themselves.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Sunil Wimalawansa (see ee Quotes<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colonial Professors & Undermining Sri Lanka\u2019s Industrialization<\/a><\/blockquote>